Sooo… here we are, our adventure in Zambia has begun! We arrived in Lusaka on Sunday and since then every day has been a new discovery. We first noticed that the weather is a bit…chill. During the day the temperature doesn’t get higher than 20°C and there is a lot of wind, we were not really prepared for it! Probably because of that, some team members started to get a bit sick. Cedric was the first victim and hopefully he will get better soon (for the moment he is enjoying a nice nap while we have to work hard 😛 ). Hellen was second to start taking some throat pills, but that was solved quickly. Moreover, showering in our dorm is tricky… actually they don’t really work. The Zambian style that we have adopted is a bit similar to the ice-bucket challenge: take a bucket of cold water from the storage tank outside and pour it over your head! Every morning is a refreshing experience ? Finally, we are a bit struggling with cockroaches… this nasty little creatures invade our rooms every night and the girls freak out while the guys have to get rid of them (pretty funny to watch). Luckily we will be provided with mosquito nets for our beds soon and spray our rooms with loooooots of insecticides.
Except for these initial hiccups everything is going well. We had a delicious typical Zambian meal, yet it did make Cedric throw up through his nose. We were introduced to the Envaros team members: Quiny, Precious, Andrew, Joseph and Erik and we made a planning of the project with them. Afterwards we went to check Kanyama Primary School and talked to the head mistress, she seemed very happy about the installation we are planning to build for their school. We inspected the storage tank for the water and the students inspected us ‘muzungus’ (meaning white people). On top of that we went to look for components in the local shops in the city center. We found a lot of pipes, bends, t-pieces, tanks, wigs, babyfood, mirrors,…. and everything else we might need for this project.
As you can notice, we are still getting settled in our new home for the next two months. However we are definitely enjoying the process and the start-up of the project. We made a lot of new friends, like Evans a.k.a. the big boss and Quinn, shown in the picture below. We haven’t seen a lot of animals yet, but we spotted an elephant between the bushes!
Nayenda, tiza onana mailo!
Hallo Munzungus! Leuk dat we door jullie project ook onze taalkennis een beetje kunnen opkrikken. Ik kijk al uit naar de volgende les. Goed te horen dat jullie het zo goed stellen, de ice bucket shower geeft me kippenvel – Misschien na het waterzuiveringsproject een waterverwarmingsproject opstarten? Onze gedachten gaan ook uit naar Cedric – ik ken hem wel niet, maar als je verkouden bent en dan nog door uw neus moet overgeven … wel, dan heb je het wel dubbel zitten. Kop hoog, Cedric, misschien zijn de virusjes op die manier allemaal weggewassen.
Veel ontdekkingsplezier nog, hou de beestjes onder controle en jullie zelf lekker warm.
Het allerbeste en tot schrijfs.
That elephant is fake news ?. Keep up the good work!